Best approach for night terrors?

My daughter just started having night terrors. She is waking up at around 11:30pm, and she is inconsolable and crying hysterically. Last night I tried consoling her, and it made it worse. It ended up lasting 30 minutes! After we read online not to console or speak with her, we stopped talking to her, put her on the floor with the lights on, and just waited it out. Eventually, she just stopped crying, grabbed her sippy cup and sat down on my lap, then fell asleep. I put her in the crib and she slept the rest of the night. My question is - what do we do to prevent this in the future? Also, if it happens, what do we do to minimize the length of time that it's occuring for? Should we take her out of the crib? Turn on the lights? This is the third time it's happened in two weeks. She is also in the process of getting in 5 teeth now, so I'm sure this is effecting the amount/quality of sleep she is getting. Thanks for any help!!

When our daughter turned 3, we moved to a new home and she got a new sibling. This led to night terrors. The best way for me to tell if it was a night terror was to see if I could get her to look at me. If she wouldn't open her eyes or if she didn't focus on me when her eyes did open, I knew she was having a night terror. Once it happens, you just have to let her cry it out. We were told by someone who had been throught the same thing that it helps to wake the child about an hour and a half after she goes to sleep. Don't fully awaken her with lights and drinks, just speak to her, say I love you and kiss her cheeks until she stirs a bit or opens her eyes for a moment. This interrupts the sleep cycle so that she doesn't reach the point in the cycle when she would normally have a night terror. This worked for us without fail. It's all about the timing though. Sometimes we waited too long and she started to cry before we made it in there to wake her.

I think with night terrors you just have to wait until they outgrow it. My daughter went through it when she was getting sick. She would scream for Daddy and he would be right there. She would scream for Mommy and I would be holding her. She was unaware of anything. I just talked calmly to her and treated her like I would a sleepwalker. I rocked her back to sleep. She eventually outgrew it, but it was terrifying for all of us. Then it just became routine whenever she was getting sick we expected it. It's not pleasant for anyone but she didn't know what we were saying to her so we just got her back to sleep as soon as we could. And the calmer we were the easier it was to get her back to sleep.

I had night terrors as a child. I would recommend no caffeine or sugar of any kind, putting your child to sleep early, and making sure not to over stimulate your child. I was always had a very vivid imagination. When this would happen to me, I couldn't shake the dream state while still awake. Hopefully this will pass for you.

Anonymous

Answered 12/6/07

9 found this helpful

My little brother, now almost 20, started having night terrors before he was 2. Someone told my mom to take him to the bathroom and have him pee. She tried it and it worked. He had them up until age8, but if you directed him to the bathroom and had him go pee, they didn't last as long. My 2 year old is doing the same thing and I take him to the bathroom as soon as I hear him, so his blood curdling screams only last bout 5min and then he's back in his bed snoozing.

a BabyCenter member

Answered 1/3/10

8 found this helpful

When my daughter was about 2 weeks old she started getting night terrors. She is going to be 3 in June and still has them. We took her to a couple docs and they all say different things. one doc said to leave them alone and then them cry it out, that they will out grow it by 1 year old. the 2nd doc said to force them to wake up, however u have to. They also said she would grow out of them. A 3rd doc told me to keep her away from red juices or food (strawberry, fruit punch, etc.) because that somehow stimulates the brain. I dont know. I don't understand it. All i know is that we have tried everything we can with a soon to be 3 year old and it doesn't work. After her terror is done, she lays back down and is out. no questions ask. All the docs say she will grow out of it by the next year but I have come to learn it doesn't work that way. Just keep your head up. Its hard because you feel so helpless. Hope you find something that works.

Night terrors are awful...when my son turned 3 he gave up his pacifier and also gave up napping...he started the night terrors I think because of the adjustment without the bink and also because he was sleep deprived. He was used to napping 3 hours in the afternoons and his body just went haywire!! He continuously had them for like 3 months, then they became more sporadic...now he rarely gets them (he's 4 now). The only time he gets them now is if he gets out of wack with his bedtime/sleep routine or if he's sick. Meds make him have them too! Good luck to you...it will get better!

Our 14 months daughter has been having night terrors since 2 months ago. They do not happen every night, but when they do, she screams A LOT (it is not possible to describe this, you have to see it, it is not her normal screaming.) Also , if we try to hold her to comfort her, the situation gets worse (she arches her back and becomes very difficult to handle).
THE ONLY THING that really really DID HELP was to show her a baby application on a tablet. The application shows full screen images of animals (cats, dogs, etc), and if you double click on the image the sound that the animal normally makes is produced. I know this works because we tried it repeatedly after trying everything else (), and the result is she does wake up (her eyes are obviously open , from 'before's' 1/4 open) and she interacts with the pictures (she 'talks' to them , and even kisses the picture with the dog). She starts smiling and even looking at us - we become friends again :)(before it's as if she does not see us

My daughter had them starting in infancy and through about age 2. She's 4 now and hasn't had one in some time--knock on wood! Between the pediatrician and my own research, I have found they are attributed to difficulty bridging sleep cycles (moving from 1 to another) as well as a quickly-growing brain. They are terrifying for parents as the child might seem to be in agony but there is really nothing wrong. Like another posted, they seemed to happen more when she was overly tired but were not generally predictable. At times her eyes, although open, always looked right through me. I found just keeping her safe and letting her pass through it was best. Trying to wake, hold, or comfort her only prolonged the fits and mama trauma. Granted, it can be difficult to ignore.

Our son started getting night terrors when he was about 2 and a half. We had no idea what was causing them or how to stop them at first. I did a little research on line and learned that night terrors happen when I child is partially woken up, so they enter the dream state. I also, read that sometimes this will happen when your child is starting to become aware of when they have to go pee. We have noticed that this is true for our son. He will tell us no that he doesn't have to go pee, we'll sit him on the toilet and he'll still be screaming that he doesn't have to pee, yet he will already be peeing. As soon as he is finished going pee, he is calm and ready to go to bed. We have experience this 3 or 4 times in the last few months and it is working for us right now.

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